• Question: How do you chose your job

    Asked by NiamhC to Vincent, Rea, Peter, Ohood, Danielle on 7 Dec 2021.
    • Photo: Danielle Nader

      Danielle Nader answered on 18 Nov 2021:


      I think you could start by asking yourself what subjects do you like in Science? This start off very broad, like Biology, Chemistry, or Physics. Then you could start Googling some topics within each of these fields. I’ll give an example of Biology, since thats what I studied when I was in college.

      I took a bunch of courses that helped me consider what exact job I wanted to do. This included genetics, cell biology, plant biology, biochemistry, microbiology, bioengineering. I found the microbiology course to be the most interesting, since I was very interested in human diseases. If you are interested in human diseases but not infectious organisms (like bacteria, virus etc), you might be interested in topics like immunology (the immune system), neurology (studying the brain), oncology (studying cancer)…

      But science is not only limited to the 3 I mentioned before. Maybe you like zoology (studying animals), astronomy, earth sciences (geology), or even the combination of computer programming and biology (bioinformatics).

      So it all really depends on, which of these topics do you think is interesting? Which do you want to know more about?

    • Photo: Peter Milner

      Peter Milner answered on 18 Nov 2021:


      I think it all comes down to what interests you. Keep your options open throughout school and college, and try out as many different things as you can. I didn’t know what area I wanted to specialise in throughout college, until my final year when I did a module on photonics and found it really interesting. So don’t panic if you don’t know what you want to do, you will find something.

      Ultimately, (I’ll say it again) it’s what interests you. If you end up in a job that maybe pays well, but you really don’t like the work, I don’t think you’ll be very happy. Alternatively, even if you’re not payed very well but enjoy what you do, you’ll likely be a lot happier!

      For school and college, I think it’s best to try many different subjects. I did accounting, physics, chemistry, drawing and design, for my leaving cert. Ended up not liking accounting at all, but that’s important to know. Knowing what you don’t like is as important as knowing what you like. Keep an open mind and learn about many different things and I’m sure you’ll find your calling

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